Older folks, ever feel "out of touch"?

[68Wooley]

It depends what you mean?


I know a lot about the the things that are personally and professionally important. I also know there is a whole lot of stuff I know nothing about. I'm confident enough that if it ever became important to me, I could pick it up.

The problem is that IT has become so pervasive that its impossible to keep up with and be knowledgeable in everything. Relax and enjoy what's relevant to you and don't worry about the rest.

[Patches1]

Aging only means that you have spent time on this Earth learning things that become passe.


Being of age does not necessarily equate to being functionally illeterate with computers.


Isn't it amazing how Man has learned to communicate over time, yet, still fails to understand himself?

Does anyone remember Radio Communications? MARS?

How times have changed....

Just some Older Thoughts....(cough cough...danged dust)......

[rpm]

I'm smarter than the average bear.

[Ghosth]

Started in the 2400 baud local BBS dial up days.

No, don't feel out of touch at all. In Fact, If I had any ambition I'd figure out how to make money out of being internet savvy.

[Hap]

I remember Memmaker.  The thrist for "I'm going to make this machine better."  If it ain't broke, tweak it.

Now I don't tweak.  Bought my iMac last year, and still very happy with it.  Somewhere between age for and 50 (I'll be 51 in Feb), things changed.  The "future" became "now."  I see the end of the tunnel.  Not with any foreboding or sadness, but a drive to be "useful" to those around me: work, friends, civic activities.

For some reason "feathering my own nest" never fully caught on with me.  I left a high paying gig 4 years ago, for a low paying simple minded job in a grocery store.  It's fun to go to work.  See lots of people.  See if I can help keep the employees from setting each others hair on fire.

"What matters" has changed drastically.  For the better too  

As far as technology goes, I ditched my cell phone 4 years ago.  Huzzah!  I like receiving and sending real letters rather than email.  Haven't watched TV in 4 years except for 1.5 weeks of the Olympics and the Holy Father's funeral Mass.  I don't like my cordless phone that I've had for years.  The battery is going.  Of course I could replace it easily.  I want a phone like the phones I grew up with.  I guess "dials" are out of the question.  The kind you can easily cradle against your shoulder.  Oh, lost the headset 4 years ago too.

[KONG1]

Originally posted by Tac
If you remember what MEMMAKER was for...

Bah, never used memmaker, could configure upper memory more efficiently manually. I've programmed lisp on punch cards, wrote a networking app for Osbourne computers in assembly language, wrote a command line multitasking OS for a PDP-11. Need a device driver, write it. Been there done that, blah blah

When you look at new technologies they're actually simpler than the days of yore. No need to keep up, they come and go so fast you can skip the "big new thing" it will often be replaced by the next "big new thing" in short order. Just learn what you need as you need it.

My scotch bottle still works like it always did. Turn counter clockwise for goodness.

[AKIron]

"Old" people (those at least 20 years older than me) are probably spending more time time on-line than young (those at least 10 years younger than me) people. My mother (74) spends more time on-line than I do. Her husband died several years ago and she is looking for another.

[FiLtH]

Alot of the stuff seems pretty useless to me.  Take texting. They already invented the telephone, why would I want to type crap out when a few words across phones does it so much easier?
 
   Ya theres alot of new stuff out there, but if you are learning all of that, you are missing out on a few basic things along the way. Seems we have reached a point where if there was a global catastrophe, the average guy of the 1700s would be better off, the the average guy of today. Atleast as far as sustaining his life.

[AKIron]

Originally posted by FiLtH
Alot of the stuff seems pretty useless to me.  Take texting. They already invented the telephone, why would I want to type crap out when a few words across phones does it so much easier?
 
   Ya theres alot of new stuff out there, but if you are learning all of that, you are missing out on a few basic things along the way. Seems we have reached a point where if there was a global catastrophe, the average guy of the 1700s would be better off, the the average guy of today. Atleast as far as sustaining his life.

I've made fun of people texting with the comment that someday technology will allow them to actually talk directly with people.

Text does have advantages over voice though. It is more convenient and you can "converse" with several people simultaneously. Perhaps the next step will be voice queueing, a hybrid of voicemail and texting. Whaddaya think?

[Vulcan]

Originally posted by Holden McGroin
I had 8" floppy disks on my first computer.  It was pretty cool though, I was able to get into the school computer and adjust my and my GF's grades.  

I had an auto dialer and once called all the phone numbers in San Jose, looking for a new game I was interested in.

I thought I found what I wanted, and started playing a game called Global Themonuclear War.  

Boy the s**t hit the fan then.

I was banned from computers for a while... court order.

Heeheheheheheh you wish - just another 80s movie throwback.

Anyhooo IRL I started on 300 baud modems, had a hacked toll free line (big deal back then in NZ as tolls were horribly expensive), which I used to get access to some old school bbs's such as the Hackers Den and Pirates Cove. One of my friends wrote the Stoned Virus (aka marajuana virus). At one time I had 4 modems at home running my own BBS and I programmed junk in Turbo Prolog (whatever happend to 5GL's?).